Agendas

Edit 28 …
Hopefully we can develop our agendas collaboratively. Please add agenda items to the applicable agenda below. After each meeting we can move discussion to "Meeting Notes."

To make your suggestions click on "edit" above, click where want to type, and go for it.

October 15, 2010: 45 minutes
Announcements/Celebrations (no discussion):

  • iPads launched and are already being used by kids with much enthusiasm. So far so good with the systems we set up.
  • Gala was announced along with the Tech Award to help encourage teachers to do whatever they can with tech.
  • I did not yet draft a survey and will not have one ready by Friday. Stay tuned, though.

Friday’s agenda:

  • Purchasing decision timeline (watch your e-mail tomorrow)


  • Gaggle issue. Basically which of the new functions should we leave open and which to close. (also watch your e-mail for more info)


  • Arranging our MS/JH site visits. We have all the contact info for tech people at Oak-Land, Skyview and Woodbury MS. Think about which you want to visit, when, etc. Develop list of questions we want to ask/documents we would like to obtain/things we want to see kids doing.




  • What to have Tierney cover in the November inservice day SMART training. We will have one hour of advanced and one hour of beginner and lab time in the opposite hour. What specifically do we want to cover? Below is a list of topics covered (warp-speed, I’m told) in fall inservice week (thanks Lynn for the list). Please give it a think.

Touch Recognition (Only on new boards)
Align/Orient
Help Center button on pen tray
Ink Layer Transparency
Capture
Tool/Menu Bar
How you can change your pen options on the tool bar
Zoom on Projector
Volume on Projector
Freeze
A/V Mute (15 min max.)
Source Search button
SMART power light
Pens/Buttons



April 9, 2010: 45 minutes
Announcements and happenings:
  1. The digital video cameras finally arrived. We were able to show them and distribute the sign-up sheet at the 4/6/10 staff meeting. Positive reception so far. They are already out to a team.
  2. Continuum group is meeting on Friday, April 16 in the afternoon to finish fleshing out the continuum. If time we will discuss best practices further.
  3. Intermediate teachers, lead teachers, and Kelli met regarding flash drive for 4-6. They agreed to put on the supply list a 4 MB flash drive for all 4-5-6 students that could be used by that student every year thereafter. Kelli is investigating how to possibly to a pre-order through the school at a discount. We will also continue to use Gaggle for the student e-mail but will use the free version and will not pursue the paid version at this time.

Agenda:
  1. Tuesday Tech Tip wrap up. Lynn already e-mailed out the results of the survey she conducted. Do we want to sign up for the remainder of the year, or restart in the fall? (5 min.) We should continue to send out tips. Think about a place to store them for review. Our tips the rest of the year will be about: Flip cameras, and perhaps math as well. Next year we might look at focusing on theme related tips and throw in some other ones as well.
  2. Best practices readings discussion. Please fill in the chart on the wiki before the meeting. Feel free to do any of the unassigned readings and summarize. (20 min.) Laura and Kelli found a lot of things to support using an electronic portfolio.
  3. Electronic portfolio demo and discussion. Do we want to have a team pilot this in the fall? (20 min.)

March 5, 2010: 45 minutes
Announcements and happenings (as of 2/12/10):
  1. Tech Committee reports to SDSC on March 3.
  2. We had our "Tech Share" where the staff members who attended TIES in December shared with the whole staff our learnings (see notes from January 8 meeting). We have had a positive response and were mentioned in Feb. Principal's Report to SDSC. Projects I have been hearing about as a result of this session: iMovies in at least two intermediate classrooms as well as all of B 4-6 and one literacy group in A 4-6 using wikis. Positive!
  3. The digital video cameras have been ordered and the staff development around these has been planned out. We are just eagerly awaiting their arrival.

Agenda:
1. Check in. Get some follow-up dates on calendar. There is hourly pay available to do committee work after school and we need volunteers to do some tasks (develop a survey about Tuesday tech tips, populate the continuum, draft a separate survey for our Phase I work). Also schedule another sub day to work on continuum and best practices. We want to use up all monies available to us!
2. Discuss starting a staff Delicious list. Watch the video below before the meeting. Do we want to do this and who will help populate? Social bookmarking video: Common Craft Explanation
3. Electronic portfolio possibility. Discussion and decide future action (pilot? scrap? seek other possibilities?)
ePEARL Demo Site




January 29, 2010: 45 minutes
  1. Use the SMART Notebook document titled Tech.notebook. It contains all the Phase 1 tasks (yellow) as well as our hopes and dreams we set at the beginning of the year (orange). Please classify the tasks in the piles into the four categories: In Progress, Done, Not Applicable, To Do. I may approach people next week about which tasks they would like to work on. Think of an area where you feel you could make a contribution – our list is long!
  2. Please look at what we have done on the continuum thus far (FYI, it is not formatted for printing). See what we like/don’t like. One of my thoughts on the continuum is that I’m not sure I like the bolded statements, taken directly from ISTE, to be listed under 4/5/6. It makes them sound like they are end products or something that can be fully accomplished, when in reality we are always working toward those and they will look different at every grade level. So I’d like them to be in a different location, though not sure where. Some staff also brought up questions about how expectations around e-mail instruction/usage will be conveyed to the staff. Is that through the continuum?
  3. Look at the MEMO standards provided earlier this year by Ginny. Start to think about how/where to put them in.


January 8, 2010: 45 minutes
What went on in December (some of this we will discuss in meeting, some not). Busy, busy!

  1. Standards study and continuum revision: A subcommittee of Lynn S., Britta F., Laura L., Linda D., Kelli M., (as well as Lisa G. and Mary A. each for a portion of the afternoon) met for an afternoon to begin examining how the standards could fit into our continuum or a new one. We started drafting a new continuum. We have lots of ideas. One of the biggest things we discussed apart from standards and continuum issues was how to impress upon all staff the importance of technology. We are going to try to get an outside speaker from Osseo to come in for a morning staff meeting and will also hopefully be able to do some further exploration of this topic this spring.
  2. Student e-mail: Parent meeting was held Dec. 15 (one parent attended). The subcommittee originally formed by the 4-6 PLC (Britta F., Lynn S., Jean K., Kelli M., Mary A., Andy K.) was convened to settle the question of whether or not to use Gaggle with all kids (decided we would do so - the free version). Also a letter will go home with the students once we are ready to launch (in January!). Kelli is working with Andy to see when we can launch, what the parent letter looks like and if it needs to be changed, and going to request grade-level meeting time for the 4-6 teachers to see the teacher interface before the kids are up and running. The parent letter is still being refined but all the logins and passwords are changed and so we are ready to launch this month.
  3. Digital cameras: We received partial funding for the Flip cameras we requested funding to buy. Britta learned about other cameras at TIES and so we will be looking into it further. She also has some ideas of how to do staff training around the cameras.
  4. TIES Attendance: We were lucky to be able to send 5 teachers (Linda D., Stacy P., Britta F., Lynn S., Kelli M.) to the TIES Conference. It was a very energizing conference and lots was learned and some new dreams were hatched (see the Dreams page on the wiki if you want to see what some people thought!). TIES is an important educational technology organization in Minnesota.
  5. Tech Tips: Lynn S. made a GREAT template for the tech tips and has authored the first one. Remember the schedule (on the notes of the wiki page if you forgot).

Agenda:
15-20 min.: TIES attendees demo/share highlights of what they learned at the conference.
10 min.: Scheduling additional work time for continuing to work on the continuum (integrating MEMO standards and fleshing out). The bulk of our funds are for timesheet hours.
Remainder: Split into two work groups. One group will discuss how to implement Flip cams. Second group will discuss if/how to launch a Delicious list for our school.

December 4, 2009: 45 minutes

December Announcements (we will not spend time in discussion):
  • The e-mail issue has moved back to the small group (Britta, Jean Karschnia from C 4-5-6, Lynn S., Kelli, Mary, Andy) that was working on it initially this fall. We will report back to the larger committee with our plans. The issues are the same as what we discussed last meeting, nothing new. Since Intermediate is principally affected Mary and I decided to move discussion back to that small group.
  • The Flip cam proposal was submitted to the 916 Foundation (thanks Janet and Linda B.). We do not yet know the funding status of that project and will report to the committee when we do.
  • Kelli reported to the VCCS Shared Decisions Site Council the first week in November. There was discussion about our timeline for implementing SMART in the whole building, but I did not know the answer since it so funding-based. PTA is still working to raise funds for more boards. They are currently or soon to launch a cash campaign to parents. Otherwise the SDSC was supportive of our initiatives. I believe everyone saw the SDSC report when I sent it out in November (if you need it again, let me know).
  • We are hoping to send a few VCCS reps to the TIES Conference next week (Dec. 12-15). We are hoping to send some Theme people because of the large number of social studies/science sessions, but so far (Tuesday) there is little interest, so staff who are interested should put in their names.

Item #1: Staff Training (15-20 min.)
This was one of our hopes and dreams for the year so we have to start doing something even if it is small.

Ideas:
  1. A mini-training at the start of each PLC? Esp. in 4-5-6 it could be SMART. K-1/2-3 could be a featured website or other tool, or could be SMART info if that is what they want. Not even sure if this is a possibility.
  2. Before-school trainings. Have not been well-attended in the past, but still an option.
  3. Weekly e-mail tech tips or outstanding website resources.
  4. Add yours here . . .

Item #2: Standards Study Day Preparation (Remainder)
  1. I put a list of organizations on our Wiki. It would be helpful if you know of other good resources that we should be looking at if you could put them up, or if you happen to know the links to some of them if you could pop them up. They are on the "Continuum Revision" page of the wiki (http://vccstechnology.wikispaces.com)
  2. Divide up the orgs, go to their websites, pull standards documents and print off (in computer lab)
  3. Make notes of any new things we discover in the process of doing this.
  4. Anything else?

November 5, 2009: 45 minutes
  • Greeting
  • Set up outside work time. BRING YOUR CALENDAR
    • 1) Standards/curriculum study day or half day.
    • 2) Small group or individual draft our statement about the filter.
  • Updates: SDSC report, Student e-mail meeting, teacher page training, tech news we've been hearing about in the building (10 min. total)
  • Status of Flip Camera proposal. Has been started but need a volunteer to bring it to completion. Due by November 18. Also discuss if should try to buy rechargeable battery pack or stick with AA (standard). (5 min.)
  • Staff training. This is one of our hopes and dreams - we need to decide on some stuff to try. Bring ideas for format of trainings, when we could do them, more topics ideas. Will need volunteers to organize trainings.
  • (If time) Delicious list idea

October 2, 2009: 45 minutes
  • Greeting & adding people into our technology quadrant thing from last time
  • Updates: Student e-mail (change their usernames to more private ones can we do this sooner than later?), Teacher Page Training, SMART Training and tech initiatives we've been hearing about in the building (15 min. total)
  • Set a date for a study day about national standards? (5 min.)
  • Delicious as a way to accomplish our goal of bringing activities that can be used in the classroom (10 min.)
  • In remaining time, based on people's interest, either:
    • The formation of a SMART subcommittee, or how we might successfully manage the implementation of SMART use throughout building (since this task alone could take basically all of our scheduled meeting time)
    • or, Hardware discussion: flip cameras v. iPod touch (Lynn can you pls. bring to show and if anyone has an iPod Touch pls. bring)
  • After: Help joining the wiki in media lab if you need it

September 3, 2009: 45 minutes
  • Getting to know each other activity
  • Review last year's accomplishments
  • Have-to: Create our Hope & Dream for submission to SDSC/Look at Phase 1 tasks and see what we want to try to do this year
  • Committee roles: notetaker, other?
  • SMART training for new users and for continuing development of existing users - when, who, how, etc.
  • Set morning mini-trainings on calendar: topics?


Eventually:
  • How to roll out the checklist we did last year
  • Look at ISTE standards and how we can set them up for our reporting system
  • Piloting our ideas like a staff delicious list, increased student tech use, and other dreams at left
  • Training and establishment of expectations - new website
  • Formation of a SMART board subcommittee? A group that is really passionate that can deepen our use and keep momentum going as well as remembering needs of SMART users like training
  • Student e-mail use: plan of attack